SLAYER’s Label Once Asked Them To Write Radio Hit, Band’s Manager Recalls

SLAYER longtime manager Rick Sales talked how SLAYER was offered to write a radio hitwhile the band was working on their 1994’s Divine Intervention.

An executive at the SLAYER’s label at the time, American Recordings, visited SLAYER in the studio and suggested them to make a mainstream, commercial radio song. “He said, ‘If you can deliver me one song that we can get on the radio, we can change the future. It’ll change everything,'” Sales recalls.

Without a pause, guitarist Jeff Hanneman said, “Hey, we’re making a Slayer record here, and if you can get it on the radio, great. And if you can’t, fuck it,” remembers Sales. “Jeff was always like, ‘Hey, I’m not changing for anybody,’ and the rest of the band were all completely lockstep in agreement on that. They were always concerned about, and maintained, their integrity.”